Get well soon, Robert Novak

posted at 1:50 pm on July 28, 2008 by Ed Morrissey

Robert Novak, one of the most highly read columnists on Beltway politics, has been diagnosed with a brain tumor after suddenly falling ill yesterday. His column will go on suspension while doctors determine whether the tumor is malignant or not and the best course of treatment in either case:

Chicago Sun-Times columnist Robert Novak announced Monday he has been diagnosed with a brain tumor, but says “God willing” he will be back at work soon.

Novak said he was diagnosed on Sunday with a brain tumor and will soon begin treatment at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. …

The diagnosis was sudden, she said. He became ill Sunday during a family outing near Cape Cod, Mass. A family member called 91[1], and he was brought by ambulance to Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, where the diagnosis was made.

It will be interesting to see how this news gets received by the media and the blogosphere. When Ted Kennedy got a similar diagnosis, the outpouring of attention and good wishes spread across the political spectrum. Novak, who has reported on American politics for longer than Ted Kennedy has worked in it, will probably not get the same reaction. Last week, when Novak accidentally hit a pedestrian with his car without realizing it — a story that takes on more subtleties with this diagnosis — one blogger called him a “sociopath”.

At any rate, I’d like to wish Novak the same prayers and thoughts I offered for Kennedy — quick and complete recovery. We’re going to miss his incisive commentary and his connections in the next 99 days until the election, but hopefully we’ll have him back in the scrum soon.

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Ooof. Brain tumor. If its operable/treatable he has a good shot, I knew a guy last year who had a baseball sized tumor that was surgically removed. After that I am not exactly sure what surgeons can’t do. Very impressive.

Novak was born Jewish and attended Christian services sporadically until the mid-1960s, after which he stopped going to religious services for nearly 30 years. But Novak said the Holy Spirit began to intervene in his life.

[...]

Novak started to go to Mass regularly, but it wasn’t until a few years later that he decided to convert to Catholicism. The turning point, as he recounts in his book, happened when he went to Syracuse University in New York to give a lecture. Before he spoke, he was seated at a dinner table near a young woman who was wearing a necklace with a cross. Novak asked her if she was Catholic, and she posed the same question to him.

Novak replied that he had been going to Mass each Sunday for the last four years, but that he had not converted.

Her response – “Mr. Novak, life is short, but eternity is forever” – motivated him to start the process of becoming a Catholic through the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults. He was baptized at St. Patrick’s Church in 1998. His wife was also baptized a Catholic.

Novak said he believed the Holy Spirit led him to Catholicism. He told an audience at the Heritage Foundation in Washington Aug. 2 that when he was interviewed by The New York Times about his book the interviewer scoffed at his story about his source turned priest.

But Novak said he told her he believed the Holy Spirit was behind the coincidences.

“I consider this the only one true faith, so I believe the Holy Spirit led me to it,” Novak said. “Then the next day Pope Benedict (XVI) said the same thing.”

I wish cancer on no one (except some terrorists). I also do not like to “canonize” men when they get cancer.
But Novak is a creative genius, he has been a top journalist for decades, but it does seem (hindsight) that his reporting had been slipping. Making a few “rookie” errors.
God speed on this journey…one I would not wish on anyone (except the terrorists).

Brain Tumor or perhaps it is the activation of the X Gene. Novak is a mutant! Soon, he’ll be walking through walls, and generally getting the goats of liberals –oh, wait, he doesn’t need mutant powers for that (at least the latter).

Never liked Novak much, but wouldn’t wish a tumor on him or anyone. Hope he recovers soon.
He could also have a better stance on Israel, but agreed best wishes for a full recovery.

amerpundit on July 28, 2008 at 1:53 PM
My sentiments exactly. I despise him for his decades of Israel slandering lies, however I do not want anyone to get brain cancer, pancreatic cancer, liver cancer or bone cancer.

No I seriously think it is something in the water. Mass water, isn’t the greatest from my understanding.

upinak on July 28, 2008 at 2:08 PM

Ehh stuff happens, one of my best friends in High School that had a brain tumor, he was a normal guy that all of a sudden was starting to get tired, headaches a lot so he got got a CAT scan, and they found a tumor(it wasn’t cancer, but he had to have surgery to get it removed HUGE scar) he’s was fine after a few weeks and he’s fine to this day..

I wish Bob the best and will be praying for him. He’s about 15 years older than I but we were born in the same town, Joliet, Il. where I still live and went to the same high school. I don’t know Bob but I know of his “local boy does good” story and am proud of his accomplishments.

To me, finding out one has a brain tumor would be the scariest thing imaginable. To have something grow where it should not be in the very seat of our consciousness, well, I would not wish it on anybody. I don’t have an opinion one way or another about Novak, but I do wish him a speedy recovery.

Is there anyone that the DU/Kos Kids wouldn’t want to painfully die? There seems to be a segment of the population that finds glee in anybody’s untimely demise/sickness.

Tell me about it. In the last few years I’ve lost 1 cousin, 1 good friend, and 3 colleagues to malignant brain tumors of various sorts. I fear that I know how this movie ends. However, science marches on, and there’s always hope for a cure.

The only common denominator was that, except for my cousin, who was a marriage counselor, everyone I knew with a brain tumor was a radio-frequency engineer. My in-laws’ next-door neighbor, who also died of a brain tumor, was an enthusiastic ham radio operator with antennas all over his roof.

Although there’s no proof of a connection between cell phone frequencies and brain tumors, I still keep my cell phone usage down to a bare minimum. However, I draw the line at wearing a tinfoil hat. :-)

Anyway, I wish Mr. Novak the very best of luck with his course of treatment and hope he gets well soon.

I suspect that one reason that wingnuts tend to wish people well even if in heated disagreement is a fundamental belief in redemption. “Come, let us reason together…”

It’s natural that those invested in coercion, in the “repent or die” mode, would behave otherwise — with death threats, curses, and ill wishes. Statist coercion is just as coercive as religious coercion, of course.

All that said, I hope that Mr. Novak makes a full and complete recovery.

Wow this is just another in sad line of people dying and getting sick lately, Tony, Bobby Murcer and now Robert Novak.

Rbastid on July 28, 2008 at 2:02 PM

Everyone please keep the prayers going. I don’t know if any of y’all have noticed Neil Cavuto’s not been around, but apparently he has had surgery due to complications from his M.S. He battled cancer before he discovered he had M.S., but now we haven’t heard from him in a while. My heart hurts very much for all these great men, and for those still with us, make God watch over you. And for those who have left us, God be with you.

“Just go away Novak. No sympathy for you here. You’re [sic] aiding and abetting this criminal administration in treasonous activity will be your well deserved legacy. Say “hi” to Reagan when you get to Hell.”

Repeatedly praising HAMAS–as Novak frequently did (he said he was a supporter of HAMAS on CNN’s “Crossfire”)–is “incisive commentary”? Hilarious.

Debbie Schlussel on July 28, 2008 at 4:35 PM

Well, no. Praising HAMAS comes under the heading of “stupid and wrong.” However, he has written other things that are incisive.

If I may quote Shakespeare way out of context, “One touch of nature makes the whole world kin” (Troilus and Cressida, act III, scene 3). We are all human in the end.

If I can hope and pray for a complete recovery for Senator Ted “Splash ‘n’ Dash” Kennedy, whose character and deeds I despise, I can surely do so for Mr. Novak, with whom I merely happen to disagree on various topics (such as HAMAS).

A really, really good and saintly person (I am not that good!!!) could even pray for someone as wicked as Adolf Hitler or Josef Stalin, praying that the evildoer might repent of his deeds and have a complete change of heart. (‘Course, you have to be alive to have a change of heart, which is why I said “someone as wicked as AH or JS”.) A brush with death often changes people’s outlook on life. Perhaps Mr. Novak will emerge from this experience with a different perspective on the world.

I wonder if this brain tumor is not partially responsible for his collision with the pedestrian last week and his claim not to have seen the pedestrian.

Outlander on July 28, 2008 at 2:01 PM

Actually, yes. When a patient has had in accident and doesn’t realize that he/she hit someone or something, one of the first things doctors check for is a brain tumor — spatial perceptions are affected.

Not meaning to imply that I think he’ll turn leftie! That could only happen if the doctors had to remove *all* of his brain. ;-)

Mary in LA on July 28, 2008 at 6:56 PM

Actually, he used to be a lefty. He was a Kennedy Democrat, like I was, and was good friends with Kennedy and I believe Johnson. But, of course, lefty meant something different then. That’s why a lot of us aren’t there anymore. I wish him only the best.

As a Jewish conservative I have MAjor issues with Novak’s self-loathing(He was born Jewish and converted to Catholicism and is very anti-zionist/Jewish). I spent almost 12 years as an on again/off again generic Christian yet I never forgot where I came from.
I don’t like the man.
That said I hope he recovers speedily and hope G-d grants strength to his family.